About 800 students packed into the NorKam gym for a Christmas lunch on Wednesday (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

TURKEY DINNER

NorKam’s traditional Christmas luncheon returns with meal before holiday break

Dec 14, 2022 | 3:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — A longstanding tradition returned to the hallways of NorKam Secondary on Wednesday.

Students, staff and volunteers were served turkey and all the fixings as part of the school’s annual Christmas lunch.

“It’s just really fulfilling and rewarding,” said principal Rachael Sdoutz. “The students are happy and excited to come to this event. It’s wonderful to give back to them and to ensure that, whatever their situation happens to be at home, they’ve got a really special meal to head off into the hoildays.”

For the first since in two years, more than 800 students packed into the NorKam gym to enjoy their meal, as well as the comaraderie with their friends and school mates.

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“I think it’s really nice, especially for the people who might not get a turkey lunch at home, so I think it’s really nice that the school came together to do this,” said NorKam student Samson Blake.

Student Jesse Martin adddd, “It was actually very nice to actually talk to everyone and have a nice meal. Just a general nice experience,” said Norkam student Jesse Martin.

Alex Fallowfield noted, “It was great. [Last year], we were sitting in the classroom, in the trenches, thinking about COVID, thinking about dinner, but this year we’re all in the gym, having big food fights from across the gym. It was a good change.”

Volunteers from NorKam, the district and community all came together to make sure the tradition could relaunch.

“The amount of community members that really support us in getting it put together [makes the event special],” noted Sdoutz. “We couldn’t do this without the support of Safeway. The Safeway on Fortune Drive went above and beyond to make sure we had turkeys.”

For some of the students, the turkey is always their favourite part of Christmas dinner. Others have a few different favourites to eat.

“The stuffing, definitely the stuffing,” noted Martin. Fallowfield added, “Definitely not the turkey. The potatoes and the gravy. If you mix it up with your fork, just mash it into the potatoes, that’s the best part.”

While this is the first of a few Christmas meals for most students, others walk away from the NorKam Christmas lunch filled up with what might be their only turkey dinner of the holidays.